Finian Cunningham

December 18, 2016 "Information Clearing House" - "Sputnik" - The reckless accusations made by the Obama administration that Russia hacked the US elections are part of a Deep State coup unfolding against President-elect Donald Trump.

Barack Obama's end-of-year press conference this week, in which he formally accused Russia of cyber-attacks on US democracy, had the hallmark of political theater befitting a seasonal pantomime. The performance was intended to give the computer hacking claims against Russia the highest stamp of credibility and foment a public mood of Russophobia.

"We reserve the right to retaliate at a place and time of our choosing," said Obama in his best tough-guy voice, in a bid to transform wild speculation about alleged Russian malfeasance into seeming rock-solid fact which now requires a resolute patriotic response.

The coup against Trump could manifest in his impeachment from the White House after his inauguration in January, or less dramatically it could result in Trump being allowed to stay in office but under full control of the Deep State – the shadowy unelected forces of the military-intelligence apparatus that really govern America.

In the latter scenario, Trump will be obliged to fully submit to the Deep State's confrontational agenda towards Russia. Either way, it will mean the political emasculation of Trump.

Pre-election claims of Russian state-sponsored cyber-attacks suddenly burst open again last week when top American newspapers the New York Times and Washington Post – both closely linked to the military-intelligence Deep State apparatus – reported on sensational claims attributed to the Central Intelligence Agency, which alleged that Russia had covertly interfered in the presidential election in order to get Trump into the White House.

There is no evidence whatsoever presented to substantiate the allegations against Russia. It is an incredible sign of how degraded American mainstream journalism has become whenever such stilted stories are afforded gravitas. The whole narrative is clunking with contrivance.

Furthermore, Moscow has dismissed the claims as nonsense, while Donald Trump has called them "ridiculous". Also, several respected former US intelligence experts have discounted them as implausible. Even the domestic anti-crime agency, the FBI, has declined to endorse the CIA's assessment.

Nevertheless, a political climate is being fostered in which Russia is portrayed as a sinister interloper, subverting US democracy and "cherished American values of free speech". It should be obvious, but it is not, that the American public are being played like fiddle by the Deep State.

Defeated Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton came out this week in a public statement decrying how Russia "had attacked our country" and that was the reason why she lost the election.

US news media have hyped the Russian hacker story to the level of accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of personally ordering the computer hacking of Clinton's emails aimed at damaging her in order to advantage Trump. This taps accumulated negative imagery of Putin as the "new Hitler", which the Western media have been assiduously pushing for years.

Obama added more twist to the unseemly plot by claiming that he personally warned Putin "to cut it out" when the pair met at the G20 summit last September in China. The innuendo of guilt here is a further smear. (The Kremlin said it was Putin who actually put Obama in his place over the allegations.)

Of course, the alleged Russian plot against US democracy is ludicrous and baseless. But the interplay of intelligence agencies and the Washington establishment, which includes the dominant news media, is striving to poison the political atmosphere to the point where Trump's electoral mandate becomes discredited. That, in turn, will create a consensus whereby Congress will then call for his impeachment. In that case, the election would end up being awarded to Clinton.

In other words, the 2016 US presidential election result could be overturned in what amounts to a coup by the Deep State. All based on a dirty tricks campaign and psychological operations orchestrated by the CIA and its Deep State network. How fitting that would be given the decades of such operations overseas to subvert foreign governments.

Why would the US Deep State do this? We have to recognize that US hegemonic ambitions for global dominance going back several decades – from the CIA coup against John F Kennedy in 1963 up to the Wolfowitz doctrine of full spectrum dominance under George W Bush – has inevitably placed it on a confrontational course with Russia and any other geopolitical rival. American ambitions of unipolar supremacy is a zero-sum calculation in which no rival can be tolerated.

This belligerence towards Russia became more pronounced when Putin's leadership demonstrated that Russia was not willing to be a vassal for American power. In particular, Putin checked American hegemonic schemes in Georgia, Ukraine and Syria.

That is why over the past two years, Washington has intensified its propaganda to demonize Putin and Russia in order to isolate, destabilize and intimidate with all-out war. The build-up of NATO forces along Russia's borders is an integral part of this US-led belligerence.

Hillary Clinton was the presidential candidate that the Deep State had ordained to take its hostile agenda towards Russia to the next level. But best-laid plans came undone when the populist Donald Trump pulled off a shock victory at the polls on November 8.

Billionaire Trump is an arch-capitalist and from his cabinet appointments so far it is unlikely that he will be the defender of American workers that he claims to be. However, true to his pragmatic profit-making instincts, Trump wants to restore relations with Russia and cut lucrative energy deals. His nomination of ExxonMobil boss Rex Tillerson, who has extensive business links with Russia, as Secretary of State is consistent with this deal-making attitude.

In that way, Trump is seen by the Deep State as an impediment to its long-term strategy of subjugating Russia. Trump will, therefore, have to be either tossed out or tamed.

This is where all the recent hype about Russian cyber-attacks starts to make sense. In themselves, the claims are laughable. But with enough media and political orchestration, the conditions can be contrived for Trump's impeachment – because, it will be alleged, he is an illegitimate president and a beneficiary of a malign foreign enemy of the US.

At which point Trump might take the option of remaining in office, but with the tacit agreement that he will henceforth "get tough on Russia" as dictated by the strategic interests of the Deep State.

If Trump takes neither option but instead persists in attempting to chart his own course as an autonomous president, then the Deep State can always resort to its executive action policy. In short, assassination.

It is ironic that magnate Donald Trump acquired his public fame through the reality TV program, The Apprentice, in which he would assess hapless individuals for career appointments. More times than not, Trump would callously discard candidates with the terse words: "You're Fired!"

Watching how the sinister Deep State forces are maneuvering around Trump to assess his "suitability" for prosecuting their hostile agenda towards Russia, it is Trump who is now in the firing line.